Reelsboro taxidermist best in the nation at waterfowl

REELSBORO — Page Nethercutt has immortalized hundreds of animals large and small as a taxidermist since his youth, but his favorites are the waterfowl.

Sue Book, Sun Journal Staff

REELSBORO — Page Nethercutt has immortalized hundreds of animals large and small as a taxidermist since his youth, but his favorites are the waterfowl.

This year in early January, the 42-year-old Reelsboro man’s passion singled him out as the best in North America at preserving those birds by his winning a prestigious Master’s Division Best Waterfowl category first place with his Green Winged Teal.

The bird mounted on a sculpted wave brought home state honors in August 2013 to Nethercutt and his Moore’s Swamp Taxidermy shop off N.C. 55, but it also topped all entries for Big Rock Sports North American Taxidermy Championship in Raleigh.

The taxidermist came early, almost naturally, to the craft and trade by following in the footsteps of his father Gerald, a self-taught taxidermist, who opened Gerald’s Taxidermy in 1963 and retired in 1987. Nethercutt took over the business then, and then reopened in 1994 at his present Moore’s Swamp Road location.

Nethercutt first used those skills publicly at age 8 to win a blue ribbon for a mounted squirrel at the school science fair.

“Dad was only able to teach me up to the technology available to him in 1987,” Nethercutt said. “Everything after that I’ve had to learn on my own and I’ve invented a few tricks myself.”

The skill, craft and “tricks” of the trade which he shares with his wife Bonnie, who attends most of shows and competitions with him and has competed at some herself, has supported the Nethercutt’s and their five children, aged six to 23, he said. They now have four grandchildren.

He uses knives, modeling tools, surgical needles and upholsterer’s thread or “spider wire” fishing line to make lifelike representations of animals as small as the ermine weasel from the Northern United States or Bates pigmy antelope from Cameroon, which he said “was so fragile and dainty we broke him three times after he was mounted.”

Nethercutt said that a 15-feet, 4-inch crocodile from Mozambique, Africa, which is now mounted on a shelf over the bar of the hunter who bagged it, is one of the largest and most difficult animals he has mounted.

“The croc was a huge challenge because their skin doesn’t flex like other animals because of scales,” he said. “The only movable skin is the little piece between the scales.”

Nethercutt is well known as a taxidermist and a teacher of the trade, with several video disk sets on mounting and finishing specific species — mostly birds.

He said he has mounted and finished “all of the North American species of waterfowl with exception of protected species” of hawks, owls and eagles for which a state and federal permit is needed just to have the bird and pets.

“Since they don’t have parts for house pets, they all have to be handmade,” he said. “It would be very time consuming and expensive” and almost impossible to capture the pet’s personality in a way its owners would remember and appreciate.

“The only way I’d attempt it would be at a very high price,” Nethercutt said, with a poodle-sized dog costing between $5,000 and $6,000.

Like most businesses over the last few years, Nethercutt’s bottom line has suffered during the recession, decreasing the wait time on a project from about 1½ years to five months.

About 80 percent of Nethercutt’s direct taxidermy business comes from the region, which he considers most of North Carolina. But he and his work are known far and wide through shows, which he often judges, trade fairs and his participation last year in two episodes of an AMC reality series “The Immortalizer” which did not go on a second year.

“My work isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle. This is what I do fulltime. Being your own boss has its own rewards. I’ve tried other things, but I can’t get this out of my blood. It’s not so much work, I get to come and play every day.”

He said the most interesting thing about what he does is “the different kinds of people we meet and we meet and we get to travel.”

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sue.book@newbernsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.

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